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Historical Scenes 
W t^o Berkshire Hills 

Trom Coovecticut to Verwovt 
and Over t^e J\lo^at^R Trail 



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Copyrighted 1919 

Berkshire Life Insurance Company. 

Pitlsfield. Massachusetts 



©C1A5;H264. 

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Historical Scenes in the Berkshire Hills 

From Connecticut to Vermont 

and 

Over the Mohawk Trail 

By 
Joseph E. Peirsoii 



Compiled !)>■ \V. S. Weld 



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■jERKSHIRE County, Massachusetts, the home of the Berkshire Life Insurance 
Company, has been rightly called the brightest gem in Nature's jewel casket. 
A charming valley, fifty-one miles in length and about twenty miles broad 
from Mountain top to Mountain top, hemmed in by tiie Taghconic ("the 

forest hills") range on the west, and the Hoosac ("Mountain Rock") range on the east, 

dotted with seventy beautiful lakes and crossed here and there by forest clad foot hills, it 

presents a scene of diversified beauty which allures both by its 

wildness and by its serene quiet. That its first inhabitants, the 

Mohican tribe of Indians, appreciated its charm is shown in the 

numerous legends of their life here and in the suggestive names 

which they handed down to their successors. The waterfalls of 

the county. Bash Bish and Wahconah, were named for two 

charming Indian maidens; — its river, the Housatonic, means in 

the Indian tongue "the river beyond the Mountains;" Pontoo- 

suc lake is the "haunt of the winter deer:" Mount Honwee is 

translated "Men surpassing all others:" and the streams and 

hills called Unkamet, Yokon and Konkapot recall the famous 

chiefs who led their warriors over these hills. 

Entering this vale of beauty from the State of Connecti- 
cut at the South, we face the splendid dome of Mount Wash- 





ington at the right, ahiiost matching in height the towering outlines of Greylock, keeping 
watch with its snow-crowned head at the nortiiern end of the county. Here tiie lover of 
nature will turn aside to visit the falls of Bash Bish and admire the beauty of the scene 
from the top of the Dome, and will then wend his way to Sky Farm, the home of the Goodale 
sisters, who interpreted the glory of forest and stream and sky in their verse. 

From the top of the Dome to Monument Mountain, ten miles away, seems only a 
step in the clear air of this region. William Cullen Bryant has immortalized the pictur- 
esque rocks, 

"Shaggy and wild 
Willi mossy trees and [)inn:ieles (if flint 
And many a hanging crag." 

and has written how 

'"Sheer to the vale go down the bare old eliffs — 
Huge pillars, that in the middle Heaven uprear 
Their weather beaten capitals:" 

in his poem called "Monument Mountain". 
This traditional Indian place of i)unishment, 
down whose cliff evil doers who merited death 
among the Stockbridge tribe were obliged to 
cast themselves, became a place of honor 





through the deed of an Indian maiden, who, loving contrary to the laws of her tribe and 
sorrowing unto death, threw herself from the cliff. 

"And o'er the mound that covered her, the tribe 
Built up a simple monument, a cone 
Of small loose stone. Thenceforward all who passed. 
Hunter and dame and virgin laid a stone 
In silence on the pile. It stands there yet. 
The mountain where the hapless maiden died 
Is called the Mountain of the Monument." 

Tradition gives a different version to the story. The maiden pushed from the cliff by 





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her eiirafifil fellows, was caught in the hraiiehes of a jjiiie tree and hung suspended in mid- 
air for two days and nights. Finally the great spirit, to relieve her suffering or to rebuke 
her foes, sent a great thunder storm, striking the tree with a bolt of lightning and carried 
off into the clouds both tree and maiden, of whom no trace was ever found. 

Three memorials of the early colonial struggle against the Indian on the one side, 
and political tyranny on the other, are found in this part of the county. 

A bowlder erected at the old Indian fordway acrcss the 
Housatonic at Great Barrington, indicates tlie place where 
Connecticut men met and defeated a band of Pequot Indians 
in August 1676. These Pequots were migrating to a new home, 
after their defeat in the East, and this battle turned them 
away from Berkshire and prevented further Indian compli- 
cations in the County. The simple record on the stone reads 
"The site of the great wigwam where Major John Talcott 
overtook antl dispersed a party of Indians, August 1676". 

On the Village green near the old court house occurred 
the first armed resistance to the dominion of George III. 
On August 16, 1774, more than eight months before the Battle 
of Lexington, the judges of the Crown, who attemj)tcd to hold 
court here, were prevented from so doing by an armed mob 





and Judge Ingersoll, who was especially hated by the Patriots, was ridden out of town by 
the angry citizens. An inscription on the bowlder notes that 

"Near this spot stood the first court house of Berkshire County. Here occurred 
the first open resistance to British rule in America". 
South of the town near the road to Sheffield, a monument stands on another battle- 
field, commemorating the end of an uprising against the oppression of government by 

the colonists themselves. The fol- 
lowers of the unfortunate Daniel 

Shays, adopting wrong methods 

for the correction of the ills of 

Government, met their final defeat 

at the hands of Col. John Ashley 

and the Berkshire farmers on the 

plains of Sheffield, on the 27th of 

February 1787. This was the most 

important skirmish in Shays' Re- 
bellion and with the downfall of its 

leaders, ended the attempt to reform 

the power of the Commonwealth 

by might, rather than by reason. 






The home of tlie Stockbridge tribe of the Mohicans, granted them by the Indian Com- 
missioners of Massachnsetts, lay along the Northern borders of Monument mountain and 
in the town of Stockbridge, where a tall monolith of native stone at the end of the fine 
village street marks the old Indian Burial Ground. A tower with a splendid chime of 
bells, presented lay the Field family, stands on the site of the church where tlie Indians an<l 
the Whites worsliipped God together, under the leadership of Rev. John Sergeant to 1751, 

and tlien of Jonathan Edwards till 

1785 when this special mission 

work was ended. The tablet on 

the tower makes clear the domi- 
nant thought of the Puritan in his 

search for Religious freedom, that 

such freedom involved also service 

to liis fellow man. The inscrip- 
tion reads "This memorial tower 

marks the spot where stood the 

little church in the wilderness in 

which John Sergeant preached to 

the Stockbridge Indians in 1739." 

The contrast between the lowly 






Indian in the pew and the intellectual giant of his day, Edwards, in Ihc pul])it marks the 
strangeness of the early life of the Colonists of Berkshire. Equally notal)lc in the annals 
of Stoekbridge life are the Field family, all of whom attained prominence in the life of the 
Nation. David Dudley was one of the most noted jurists of his day, Henry M. was a dis- 
tinguished editor and Cyrus W. secured permanent fame as the successful layer of the first 
Atlantic cable. The Sedgwick family also brought honor to Stoekbridge, of whom Catherine, 

born in 1786, helped by her pen to 

make it known as the home of 

culture and of literary merit, as 

well as of Missionary zeal for the 

Indian. The village street, 

famed for its beauty, with its wide 

stretches of green lawn, its rows of 

stately elms and its fine homes 

reminds one also that the early 

Fathers, notwithstanding tlie hard- 

shi])s of their daily lives, recognized 

and loved the beauty of the 

natural surroundings amid which 

their modest lot was cast. 





Nestled amid the hills of Stockbridge near the Lenox border, lies the loveliest of the 
seventy lakes of Berkshire, Lake Mahkeenac, "the Great Water", familiarly called Stock- 
bridge Bowl. Whether you gaze upon its shimmering waters from the lofty height of 
Andrew Carnegie's home, "Shadow Brook", or view it from the fine row of birches on its 
eastern edge, its surface reflects the passing clouds, or the lofty trees on its banks like a 
polished mirror. On its Northern border once stood a little red house, the summer home 
of Nathaniel Hawthorne, where he wrote the "House of the Seven Gables" and the "Blythe- 
dale Romance" and where the charm and beauty of the quiet lake and the glory of the 
forest and the sky gave inspiration to his mind and helped him to weave those wonder 
books of romance. Nowhere could poet or artist find finer o])portunity for the imagination. 




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Nowhere has nature done more to charm the eye than at this very spot where forest and 
water,' field and sky seem to meet in one ideal picture. 

These pictures show the stretch of the bowl, looking southward toward Monument 
mountain, with a glimpse of the Dome rising to the far south. The sloping fields reaching 
down to the quiet waters and the peaceful cows belong to the estate of the late George 
W. Higginson, the fine estate of Andrew Carnegie stretches to the right and the scene is 
one which Hawthorne daily gazed upon from his study window nearby. The hand of man 
has also done much to complete the picture and well kept estates and l)eautiful homes 
in Stockbridge and in Lenox as well as throughout the county, pay tribute to man's apprecia- 
tion of nature's handiwork and his joy in her friendship. 





The sturdy revolutionary spirit that actuated tlie jjioneers of the Berkshire Hills is 
illustrated in the life of General John Patterson, whose monument stands in the Lenox 
scjuare. It is said of liini that he was the first to join and among the last to return from the 
Continental army. He organized a regiment of Berkshire soldiers which marched east- 
ward after Bunker Hill and rendered service in the seige of Boston. He was in the 
ill fated exi)edition into Canada with Montgomery and Arnold. He was a member of the 

Court Martial which tried Major 

Andre, and, as a General, took 

part in the council of war called by 

General Washington, on the eve of 

the Battle of Monmouth. 

Though Berkshire was remote 

from the actual scenes of warfare, 

its men did their full part as pa- 
triots in the struggle for freedom. 

The Battle of Bennington and the 

capture of Fort Ticonderoga bear 

witness to the prowess of Col. Eas- 

ton and of "Fighting Parson Allen" 

of Pittsfield, and tlie rank and file of 








Bcrksliire's Sons, though unknown to fame, were heroic in their devotion to the ctiuse. 
This fine spirit of the early settlers is shown in the naming of the townships, Lee, Wash- 
ington, Adams, Hancock and Otis, recalling the names of Revolutionary heroes, while 
noted English Statesmen, William Pitt and the Duke of Lenox and Richmond have their 
names perpetuated in the city of Pittsfield, and the adjoining towns of Richmond and Lenox. 
From the beautiful estates of this latter town a drive of six miles along the State road, 
past the old Colonial church on the hill and the modern inno- 
vation of the Hotel Aspinwall, brings the traveler to his first 
outlook on the City of Pittsfield. If time allows, a short drive 
to the top of South Mountain, or better still, a walk to the 
summit will well repay him for his efforts. Still the wonderful 
panorama from the road at the top of Snake Hill with (Jreylock, 
the highest peak in the state, towering in the distance and the 
old home of Elsie Venner in the foreground, now the property 
of the Pittsfield Country Club, both charms the eye and 
brings to mind the fact that Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes 
spent some summers here and gave a local setting to his story 
of Elsie Venner. This house was built by Mr. Henry Van- 
Schaack in 1781 and was for many years the finest mansion 
in the village. 





One catdics a f;liiii]).se from tliis height of Melville Lake or Lilly JJowl, and nearl)y the 
former home of Herman Melville, in which he wrote his romances of the sea and many of 
his essays and sketches. He called his home "Arrowhead" and many a stone relic of the 
Indian days has been picked up in the soil of his broad acres, for near by were the Canoe 
meadows, or great camping ground of the Mohegans. A knoll near the river marks the 
Indian burial place and the Stockbridge tribe were accustomed to make pious pilgrimages 
to this spot leaving their birch canoes in the meadows near by, which thus received the name. 

Nor must the memory of Henry W. Longfellow and his relation to Pittsfield be for- 
gotten. Here Longfellow married Miss Appleton from her father's fine home on East 
Street, where the tall poplar trees cast their shadows and where "The Old Clock on the 

Stairs" told the passing hours. The poplar 
trees are s-nne. hut the old clock is treasured as a 


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sacred relic in the fine museum of Natural 
History and Art, located on South Street. 
This museum with its notable collection is a 
gift to the city by the late Hon. Zenas Crane. 


■ -SWiSi ' 


Even in that time the broad streets, the graceful 


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overhanging elms and the wide stretches of lawn 
gave a charm to the village, which lias not lieen 
lost in its later growth. 






Tlic ])ark in its very center, siirroundetl hy tlie puhlie huildinff.s anil eluirelies of tlie 
city, is still a thing of beauty and speaks eloquently of the quality of the citizenshi]). Ed- 
ucation and the law are marked by the County Court house and the Public library in the 
left foreground, while citizenship and religion show in the right foreground in the old fash- 
ioned City Hall, the old First Church and St. Stephen's Church. In the center of the Park, 
where the first Cattle Show was held and the first Agricultural fair was organized in the 
State of Massachusetts stands a Sun Dial erected by the Daughters of the American Rev- 
olution to mark the site of the old elm of historic fame. A graceful monument erected by 
grateful citizens to the soldiers who went from the town to engage in the Civil War stands 
at the West side of the Park and a bowlder on the east side commemorates the valiant 




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services of General Henry S. Briggs, the son of Governor Briggs who led the Pittsfield 

troops in the civil war and took part in twenty battles. 

No wonder that the Indian loved this beautiful valley and found here his happy hunting 

ground. Pittsfield began its history as Poontoosuck, "The haunt of tlie winter deer" and 

Pontoosuc Lake, amid the "Forest Hills" on either side retains the Indian name and marks 

the northern border of the town. It is matched by Onota Lake to the west of the city, 

a favorite hunting place of the Indians, with its tradition of 

the sacred white deer wlio.se death would l)ring misfortune to 

the tribe, and its fort or block house built for defence against 

the Indians in 1756. This was called Fort Ashley from the 

owner of the hill on 
. which it was located, 

who was afterward a 
noted Tory, and it 
was used in connec- 
tion with Fort Massa- 
chusetts in Williams- 
town for the protec- 
tion of the county. 
From cither lake can 








be seen to the north a dome like hill its crown shaven like a monk's with a gnarled and 
rugged oak on its top. It stands like a memorial to one of Lanesboro's most eminent 
citizens of the olden days. 

Jonathan Smith, a plain level headed farmer was a member of the state convention 
of Massachusetts in 1788, called to ratify the Constitution of the United States. The 
eyes of the country were on Massachusetts at this time as the hopes of this league of States 
depended on her leadership and vote. The simple practical 
address of Jonathan Smith to his fellow members in favor of 
the Constitution won the day and Massachusetts was the 
sixth state to ratify the Union. Smith's constituents honored 
him by naming this dome on his property "Constitution Hill" 
and more recent generations have erected a bowlder in the 
town square, commemorating his fine service. 

Lanesboro was also the home of other distinguished citizens 
of Massachusetts. George N. Briggs, the first President of 
the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, six times elected to 
Congress and seven times chosen Governor of Massachusetts, 
was born in Adams in 1796 but came in early life to Lanesboro 
and began here his honorable career. His first office was that 
of town clerk and he was as faithful in his service to the town 





as he was later in his wider duties to the Commonwealth. In these days lianesboro was 
known not only for the charm of its hills, its lakes and vales, but also for the sturdy character 
of its men. 

In the village cemetery stands a low native bowlder with a simple inscription marking 
the last resting place of Henry W. Shaw, known to the world by his humorous writings as 
Josh Billings. His father was an eminent lawyer, and the son, by his quaint sayings, the 
odd spelling of his mother tongue and his common sense philosophy, made a name for him- 
self in literature. The old Shaw homestead still stands in the village street and the remains 
of its honored son rest in the quiet cemetery. 

From literature to cheese is a long step, but the adjoining town of Cheshire gained 

more renown from the latter than Lanesboro did 
from the former. Elder John Leland was a 
staunch friend of Thomas Jefferson, and came 
mightily to his defence when he was nominated 
for President. In honor of his election the 
citizens of Cheshire, under the leadership of 
Elder Leland, made a great cheese, weighing 
l'-235 pounds, which was carefully cured for two 
months, and then hauled by team to Hudson, 
N. Y., and shipped to Washington as a present 








to Jefferson. Eltier Ix-laiul preseiilcil it to the President on J;iii. 1, 180'* witli j^reat cere- 
mony, and l)roiiglit back to his constituents the thanks of Jefferson for tlieir gift, as an evi- 
dence of their fidelity to the great cause of equal rights to all men. 

Tradition does not ascribe the source of Cheshire's fine Reservoir to the whey which 
flowed from the cheese press, but its beauty when viewed from the neighboring hillsides 
makes both literature and chee.se seem unneces.sary and tame. Its waters flow northward 
into the Hoosac river which finds its way to tide water through the majestic Hudson, 
while the gentle brook which comes from the hillsides a few miles to the south, turns its 
course southward into the Housatonic and on through the county and through western 
Connecticut into Long Island Sound. That the tired traveler might slake his thirst a 
fountain was erected in the village square by 

Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood, Chaplain General of ^^^^K&^ -^^B^W^^L^^^ 

the Daughters of the American Revolution in ^HBJBF^^^* It^MtT^ ^■- 

niemory of the brave men who served in the 
Revolutionary war. Patriots of Cheshire 
answered the call of Lexington and Concord, 
and were at the capture of Ticonderoga and the 
Buttle of Bennington. 




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Tlie most chaniiiiig spot in the county, Willianistown, at tho northwest corner of the 
state, with its fine array of College Buildings, its Gothic Chapel and tower, its college campus 
and its Haystack Monument, commemorating the birth of American Missions, has a 
wealth of historical and literary interest which would repay a long delay within its borders. 
The band of young Williams students who, in the year 1806 under the leadershij) of Samuel 
J. Mills, took refuge from the storm under a neighboring haystack and who there devoted 

their lives to the cause of uplifting the benighted people of China 
little realized the mighty force wliich they were starting for the 
conversion of the human race. The American Board of Com- 
missioners for foreign missions owes its origin to the courage 
and devotion of these students. Its beautiful purple hills, with 
Greylockin the very center of the group, make it an ideal type 
of nature's best handiwork, and the late Dr. McCosh of Princeton 
University declared with all reverence that it would be the 
ideal j)lace to hold the Judgment day, because the surrounding 
hills furnished the projjer am|)hitheatre for assembling the 
hosts of Earth and of Heaven. Xo visit to the county is com- 
plete without a glimpse of this fine college town, and the travel- 
er from the west or south should pass this way on his road 
to the Mohawk trail at North Adams, five miles away. 




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HE old Indian trail of the Iroquois Federation led along the lowlands of the 
Mohawk and Hoosac rivers, through Eastern New York and Southern Vermont 
into Massachusetts, and then boldly climbed the height of Hoosac mountain 
and dropped down into the Deerfield valley 2,000 feet below. It is one of the 
oldest highways on the continent. It takes its name from the Mohawk tribe, the strongest 
in the Indian Federation, and its rugged heights, its bold outlines of mountain peaks and 
forests and its long vistas down the winding streams below make its name most appropriate. 
Along this trail came the early English pioneers to found a home for themselves in the Berk- 
shire valleys. Then followed the stage coach, and the railroad, and now the descendants 
of these early settlers, in luxurious motor cars, enjoy the beauty of the trail and wonder at 
the courage of its heroic makers. 

Starting at North Adams, the length of the mountain trail to Charlemont on the east 
is 15.72 miles. The grade is not over 7.5% at its steepest point, and the height at Whit- 
comb summit is 2272 feet above sea level. The building of the trail was undertaken by the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts in September 1912, and completed in November 1914, 
at a cost of approximately $345,000. 

In charm of outlook, in the diversity of field and forest, stream and mountain peak, 
and in the glimpse of winding river and shaded valley, the trail is unsurpas.sed among 
New England's scenic joys. 



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MID these beautiful surroundings and partaking somewhat of their charac- 
teristics the Berkshire Life Insurance Company of Pittsfield has set its roots 
deep into the hfe of the community as one of its old established institutions. 
It commenced business in 1851 and is thus one of the older companies of its 
kind. Its first President was Governor George N. Briggs and its officers and directors have 
always been men of fine character and prominent in the work of the county. While it is 
conservative in its management, its policies are issued in a variety of forms suited to all 
conditions of life, and subject to all the liberal provisions under Massachusetts laws. 

Mr. William D. Wyman, who has served the company for over thirty years, both as 
General Agent in the field and in the Executive work of the home office, is President of 
the CompanJ^ 

For further information apply at the Home Office or at any of the agency offices. 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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